In Hushed Whispers
by Jaysnow-Silverblaze
Summary: Sayul Adaar was a mercenary, she struck when ordered and jumped when told. Then the conclave blew up and suddenly she was important. Now she's stranded in a future gone to hell with a snarky Vint, a blind Maybe-Warden and a Champion who doesn't know when to stop talking. Time to save the world?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Was this was it would be like in the future? No matter what they did? Could she have stopped this if she had just tried a little harder?

Slice, melt into the shadows as a blade nicks perilously close to an artery, leap from the shadows behind them, cut into the brain stem at the back of the neck- next enemy. Battles were flow charts, one thing flowing naturally to the next. It was a long line of- Enemy, ally, strike there for optimal damage, roll backwards onto the balls of your feet, spring at an enemy attacking your ally, knife finds throat, dodge arrow nearing your heart- and it was a flow Sayul had gotten intimately familiar with.

Sayul had joined the Valo-Kas as soon as she was strong enough to hamstring a man with a butcher knife- which was apparently too young to get taken seriously as a mercenary. It had taken years and years of practice and experience before she was even half as powerful as she wanted to be. Then she got assigned to the protection detail of a mage-templar ceasefire meeting and the world had exploded.

She may not remember what had happened _during_ the conclave, but after? No one forgets going from prisoner, to self-preservation-fight-for-your-life, to Herald of Andraste in one day.

Knife knocked from fingers, pain in shoulder, roll away, ledge!

Torn from her thoughts she caught herself from falling over the edge of the metal grating, shifting her weight to roll the other direction. She _hated_ playing bait. She was wait-in-the-shadows and strike-once-and-it's-over, not keep-the-Venatori-from-the-squishy-mage.

The Venatori that had attacked lit up like a bonfire and suddenly there was screaming and burning flesh and a trail of flames sloshing off of a human body. Flashfire was terrifying. She retrieved her knife and tried not to think of how much Dorian's zeal for destruction matched Naarul's. That way led to thoughts of blinding green lights and halfheartedly searching through black corpses for the hulking Quinari mage at a temple smothered in whispering red lyrium.

"Well, that's that then. Where to next?" The Tevinter mage had a startling charisma to him, like a Dalish third Shokrakar had rescued from execution, all poofy hair and wide eyes with scorched eyebrows and singed skin- but a wide impish smile regardless.

Sayul ignored him for the moment, rifling through pockets and picking up anything of value. Inquisition work didn't pay like mercenary work, and sometimes enemies carried more than money on them. She hummed at the sight of a key ring in the pocket of the charred one. He was precariously close to the edge of the metal grating, obviously planning to throw himself from the edge rather than face a flaming end. Lucky for them, he'd expired too soon.

"Prisoners." She mused and Dorian hummed behind her.

"It _does_ bring up the question of what happened to the rest of your bait party." He wondered and the dark tone of his voice had her grimacing. Maybe not like Elros then, the little elf never knew when to stop joking, at least Dorian had enough tact to realize it wasn't appreciated. Not that calling Bull and Solas bait was by any means tactful, but it was better than Elros would have done.

"If they're still here that's… bad." For a number of reasons. If it wasn't far from their time, then this destruction and lyrium boom had taken no time at all, and that was dangerous. If it _had_ been a long time, then who knows what had happened to them in that time, what tortures they had endured.

"Yes. Bad." Dorian reiterated heavily, obviously catching the same undertones she had.

"Right. Let's go." She decided. There was no time to waste. The more time they hesitated, the longer Alexius had to realize they were there. They made their way downstairs, deeper into the ruined basement.

The state of the mansion had Sayul frowning heavily. Had there been an earthquake to cause such destruction? Alexius was obviously still residing here, so what could his reasoning be for allowing such a defensible mansion to fall into ruin. Attacks? Derangement? Lack of any real enemies? Just how far in the future were they?

They didn't need to wait long to figure out the answer to that one. At the end of a hallway, coated in red glowing lyrum a familiar figure was hunched against the wall. Sayul narrowed her eyes. Was her lower half _encased_ in lyrium?

"Grand Enchanter Fiona?" She questioned carefully and the woman, though obviously startled, was slow to turn her head in their direction.

"You. You are… alive. How…?" Her voice was choked and slow and heavy and Sayul clenched her fists at her side. Dorian opted to answer after her silence had stretched.

"We didn't actually die, you see the magic of the amulet reacted with my magic and poof the two of us appeared unscathed in the future." His explanation was lacking, but it brought up a point she'd wanted to discuss so she cut in before Fiona tried to answer the rhetorical statement.

"How long were we gone? What is the date Fiona, it's important."

The woman coughed, leaning against the wall, her face turned just enough to watch them. "Harvestmere… 9:42 Dragon."

A year. She vaguely heard Dorian exclaiming over the date, but the harsh reality was sinking into her bones. They'd missed a whole _year_. Abruptly she fumbled with the keys thrusting open the cage door.

"It's… no use… Can't… use legs." Fiona explained, not moving from her hunched position. Sayul dithered. Should she try anyway? Could she afford to? Could she afford not to?

"Listen… Alexius… serves the elder one. More powerful… than the maker. No one… challenges him and lives." She mumbled and Sayul backed slowly out of the cage. It wasn't just _around_ her legs. The lyrium had become a _part_ of her legs, like the stories of merfolk except it wasn't a tail it was glowing poisonous rock growing out of her hips.

"I- we'll find a way to fix this." She said, voice cracking. The flow of battle was easy, it was one movement after another, it was orders that your body gave, that didn't leave you thinking. But this? All she could do was think, and she didn't know what to do.

"Our only hope is to find the amulet Alexius used to send us here. If it still exists, I can use it to reopen the rift at the exact spot we left." Dorian put in. Maybe he saw her distress and was trying to cheer her up. "Maybe." He added, his confidence faltering and she held back a sigh. Or he was just trying to make himself feel better.

"Good." Fiona whispered, body slumping further.

"I said _Maybe_. It might also turn us into paste." Dorian pointed out.

"You must try. Your Spymaster, Leliana… she is here. Find her. Quickly… before the Elder One… learns you're here." She lapsed into silence, her final words trailing off and Sayul clenched her fists so tight she heard her knuckles crack.

She barely knew Fiona. If this is what Alexius- or whoever this _Elder One_ was- had done to her, then what had they done to her friends?

"Come, let's find the others." She said, turning quickly from Fiona's cell. There was nothing they could do for her. She was fading, and she would just be a liability. Dorian followed her wordlessly.

It was only when they were out of Fiona's possible earshot that he spoke, "It was a wonder she was coherent with Lyrium that close to her body." He hadn't noticed it then. She didn't want to tell him, she didn't want to even think the words, let alone speak them aloud. That Fiona was a _part_ of… No, it was time to move on.

The next cell they found was Bull's which turned out fractionally more humorous than Fiona's meeting, meaning Dorian joked half-heartedly, Bull made a flat comment and groused about magic and Sayul nearly had a heart attack at the red veins bulging in his face that glowed ominously.

Solas was as upright as ever when they found him, even going so far as to further explain Dorian's crappy explanation, with a light to his eyes Sayul had immediately noticed was missing. The red veins on his temples popped out from his face, leeching down to the base of his throat and her breath caught in her throat.

She was not a bleeding heart. What happened happened, and there were just things you had to live with. This? Somehow _she_ could have fixed this. If only she had _been there_ Solas wouldn't be dying, Iron Bull wouldn't be this cynical and Leliana…

They found Leliana in a torture chamber rather than a cell, and she could readily belive it had been a full year since she last saw her. Burns, malnutrition, obvious lack of sleep, lyrium poisoning, infected cuts and stab wounds. And somehow, she still had the strength to strangle a man with her thighs alone. Sometimes Sayul wished she was as strong as Leliana.

"So you're not curious how we got here?" Dorian wondered warily as the bone-thin woman retrieved her belongings.

"No." She responded, clipped. Sayul made to leave, accepting that, but Dorian insisted on explaining anyways.

"-this, his victory, the Elder One, it was never meant to be."

"Dorian thinks we can go back, to make sure this never happens again." Sayul offered firmly, hoping that would help. She knew torture victims; they wanted revenge, not solace that it will never happen again, but Leliana was pragmatic, perhaps the truth would help.

"And mages wonder why people always fear them." She said acidly. Dorian obviously felt threatened by that remark and defended himself hotly.

"Until the breach-"

"Enough!" Leliana growled, swiping a hand across the room. Bull and Solas shared a glance then took half steps back and let her speak. "This is all pretend to you. Some future you hope will never exist. I suffered, the whole _world_ suffered. It was real."

And Sayul saw it. She might claim that she would die before breaking, but they'd already broken her. She wasn't the cold headed, cold hearted mistress of spies. She was broken and hurting and she wanted them to hurt as much as she did, and if she needed to use subterfuge to do so she would, but it wasn't the elegant plans and elaborate network that she used to boast. She had nothing now.

"Yes it was." She agreed. She was starting to vaguely grasp the possibility that the amulet wouldn't work. That maybe, despite Dorian's almost insistent reminders, it probably _wasn't_ likely they would manage to send themselves back in time to right when they left. They might actually be _stuck_ , a full year out of time, with this world to worry about.

What would she do? What _could_ she do?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Everything looked green. Green from one side of the courtyard to the other. There were floating rocks and swirling patterns that danced across the sky like trailing clouds except wrong, like ripples from a lake but backwards.

"The breach." She breathed, and the others were silent and terrified behind her. And the lack of sound alone was what reminded her that this world she was entering was as new to her as it was to them; just because they hadn't skipped a year of their life didn't mean they'd seen the evolution of the nightmare they now lived in.

Then there was a rift, right in front of them, and she suddenly didn't have time for thought. It wasn't just her and squishy human mage now. So instead of playing Sayul-bait she left the crowd control to Bull and did what she did best.

She was as close to being a shadow as a Qunari could be without magic. Rake a dagger across one throat from behind, disappear, get the high ground and jump, let her body weight carry the power, roll to distribute the force, melt back into the background. It didn't matter that it was bright enough to be midday, she was still as inconsequential as a fly; until she had a dagger aiming at their back, but by then it was generally too late.

Instinctively she reached out to the rift, grasping at the magic she couldn't see or feel but _knew_ was there, and _tugged_. The rift collapsed in on itself and she let out a relieved sigh that was echoed by Dorian.

So, her curse still managed to close the rifts. That was important to know. That meant the breach was bigger, badder, and would probably need more magic to stabilize, but it was also just as easy to close as before. Speaking of which, why wasn't she screaming in a ball on the ground from the pain in her hand? Last time the breach had been less than a third of that size and she could barely stagger around when it pulsed. Was it just expanding but stable? Was she immune now?

She wasn't a mage, of that she was both vaguely disappointed and immensely grateful. She'd let Dorian deal with the fade. Actually, Solas would be best, but even he'd admitted he was dying, so perhaps that idea was a bust. She'd ask him about it when she got back to the present.

More fighting inside the rest of the compound, more strike, roll, distract, keep-the-venatori-from-the-mages. It wasn't her first choice, but she had been the one to put the team together so she should have realized that Bull couldn't keep crowd control with so many enemies without dying. Of course, at this point he was trying anyways since it wasn't as though dying _wasn't_ a desired outcome. So, she stepped in here and there to keep the stragglers away from the others and to catch the daggers at his neglected angles.

They reached the throne room before long, but the door resisted all attempts to open so they had to backtrack and find more Venatori to kill- not that that was a bad thing in and of itself, but it certainly made the noose of no-one-should-know-we're-here tighten around her neck. There was only so much time left before Alexius learned they were there- perhaps he already knew- and after him? This Elder One seemed like serious bad news.

Red lyrium was everywhere. It had grown from the very walls in the dungeons, and here senior Venatori were _carrying it around_ with them. Bare lyrium! It she hadn't thought them touched in the head before, she certainly did now. Now _they_ had to touch the damn stuff.

Solas had made a good point though, and Bull was carrying the disgusting stuff rather than the others. He was worried about the effect of the lyrium on his mind with access to his magic and Bull was already tainted. Leliana would have been a good choice as well, but there was something very sharp and dangerous about her now, like a caged varghest waiting for the right moment to strike. Not that Sayul blamed her, but there was absolutely no way she was going to let the woman hold onto five shards of the corrupting stone.

They burst through the doors to the throne room, ready for a fight. Sayul had already made herself scarce, Dorian seemingly leading the party. Instead the sight was morose and stale. Alexius, looking pale and haggard, his white robes hanging limply off of his thin frame. A hunched figure by the raging fire, looking empty; that one had to be Felix, the man's son.

She stayed in the shadows and the others entered without her, all too aware of her preference to appear invisible. Dorian broke the silence.

"Alexius, what have you done?" His words weren't even jaunty in that faked no-one-must-know-this-affects-me way that he often had. Instead they were hoarse with horror.

"I knew you would be back, not that it would be now, but I knew I had not killed you." He said, voice equally grave and hoarse. He hadn't even turned to face them. That set off warning bells in her head. His actions had led to their ruin, and the ruin of the world; what had they done to him? Then she was thinking of things mercenaries weren't paid to think about, like _why_. What had possibly made him think this had been a good idea?

"You know we can make this right." Dorian said boldly, taking a level step towards the broken man that had once been his mentor. It was a tactic Nitaal used quite often; approach with no weapons drawn, with soothing words and an open face with no intent to harm, then Sayul would come in from behind and land a dagger between their shoulder blades. She wrapped around the room with the intent to do just that. "You've seen what removing us from the picture does. If you give me the amulet we can go back and this never has to happen."

Alexius hesitated. Was it working?

Then the caged varghest struck. Lelliana moved faster than Sayul had thought her physically capable of doing and in a swift movement had the crumpled, unresponsive form of Felix pulled to her chest with a dagger at his throat.

This wasn't going to end well. Sayul flung herself from her hiding place, intent on stopping the situation from escalating further, but it was too late.

"Lelliana no!"

And the dagger slid across his pale throat, "You will hurt as much as we have." She spat, and Alexius was frozen for half a second before exploding into action.

"If I cannot have Felix, then you will never get what you want!" And in a flurry of motion he flung the amulet onto the ground. Sayul lunged, hoping, knives flashing-

Her knives slit his throat the same instant the amulet burst into flames.

Then all was still for a blinding, heart stopping second.

"No, no, no no no." Dorian repeated, flinging himself to the ground by the amulet, for once uncaring of his robes soaking in Alexius' blood.

Sayul rounded on Lelliana, "We almost had him!" She growled and the woman sneered.

"He was _never_ going to give you the amulet." She stalked towards her, the sunken face reminding her of everything this woman had gone through and she was suddenly terrified she would have to fight just to keep herself alive. "Now you will never return. You treated us, here, like we were some fable that could be written over after catching a glimpse of it. You don't know what we have been through, what we endured while you were _gone_."

And her rant- which had allowed her to advance nearly into twitchy-knife range- was suddenly cut off as a loud screeching roar like a dragon that had swallowed a fade rift pierced the air and heavy crunching steps shook the rooftop.

"The Elder One." Solas said suddenly, sounding both tired and resigned. Beside him, Iron Bull grunted.

"Shit."

Panic was a good look on Sayul. It made her fingers light up like fireflies with tension, and her mind worked a million miles a second. She rounded on Dorian, who was critically examining the green amulet he had picked up from the ground.

"Is it salvageable?" She asked, voice tight and serious and he looked up suddenly at the tone.

"I- yes, I believe so. The charms are mostly intact and I can puzzle out what he left behind. But the stone he used as a focus, we'll need a replacement. This will take more than a few hours."

Lelliana suddenly seemed in control of her actions, where before there had been only terror. Perhaps panic looked good on her as well. "We don't have _hours_."

Dorian shot her a sharp, disgruntled look, "Well I wouldn't _need_ hours if you hadn't done whatever you pleased." Sayul sliced her hand through the air.

"Enough. Lelliana, you researched the keep before we got here. Where are the escape points? Can we get out from here?" The disfigured woman paused, though whether she was thinking or shocked at the tone was up for debate.

A rallying cry sounded from somewhere outside and she shook herself. "There's a servant's tunnel that leads to the sewers. It lets out in the lakes around Redcliffe. But you'll never make it, not in time to escape the Elder One."

Sayul took a deep, fortifying breath as she took in the fact that, _no_ she wasn't going to have someone miraculously take command and tell her what the best choice was. It was all up to her. Then she let it out and straightened her shoulders.

"We'll try anyways. If it's the only way out, then we have to take it, _now_. Before this Elder One has a chance to get into it." They nodded, immobile and she bared her teeth in frustration, "Now!"

Qunari were known for their imposing stature, wicked horns and white-purple skin, all of which made it no surprise when all of them snapped into action. Dorian carefully tucked the amulet into his pack and everyone made for the main hall.

The servants tunnel was off of the kitchens, which left them sitting ducks if the venatori agents made it this far. They could hear them coming, but with none in sight, Sayul kept it at the back of her mind and no further. They reached the entrance to the tunnel and Lelliana let out a long, low sigh.

Sayul impatiently turned to regard her. "What?"

"You'll never get out in time. Not without a distraction." She said, her voice filled with solemn purpose. Sayul was suddenly suspicious. She was suggesting… Well, she couldn't exactly argue with her about this course of action pragmatically, but it pierced somewhere in her chest when she saw Solas and Bull nod to each other.

Solas caught her despair and quirked a tired smile, "We're dying Herald."

Iron Bull grunted, "At least let us go out with _some_ dignity boss."

She swallowed a lump in her throat as she heard the clamor of armored boots in the halls. The nodded, jerky and uncertain, "Right. Yes. Thank you. We'll fix the amulet. I swear."

Lelliana nodded and the three took up positions by the door. Sayul ducked into the tunnel, Dorian in front of her, and barely caught Lelliana's last words.

"Our lives for the world? That's a small sacrifice Adaar."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

They ran, like rats from a terrier, until at last they found a small abandoned camp somewhere Sayul estimated to be in the Korkari Wilds. The ground was swampy and the footing was treacherous, but she was able to lead them down drier and sturdier paths, hoping to leave less of a trackable trail.

"Well isn't this just dandy." Dorian drawled, as they added tinder to the fire. He was shivering, having fallen- quite deliberately to remove blood from his robes Sayul suspected- into a swampy river earlier in the day. She had outright refused to allow him to build the fire higher, for fear of drawing too much attention to them.

She cast a glance at him and sighed heavily, leaning back to place her weight heavily on her hands behind her. "What is it now, Dorian?"

"Oh, I don't know," he started snarkily, "Perhaps it's the cold, or the swamps, or that we somehow managed to land a year in the future. 'Oh, we'll fix this right up. It'll only take a few decades while we dodge an angry god.'" He scoffed, shivering heavily and scooting closer to the small fire, "You know we need to be in the exact place we left in order to return to the past, yes?" He added, voice calmer.

"Well that's just fucking great." She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose with the palm of her hand. "But that's pointless until we get the amulet fixed, so it's best to be away for the time being."

Dorian huffed, obviously exasperated by her logic. "Yes, then what is your plan oh fearless leader? Haven is likely destroyed and anyone we know is likely dead. Where will we draw the resources to repair this, hm?"

She shot him a dark glance, "It won't come from nowhere, it's true. What is it that's so hard to come by that you need to fix it?"

He sighed grandly and shakily rooted around his pockets for the amulet. "A significant portion of raw lyrium to start with. It looks as though this stone here-" he indicated the large chipped stone, "Is something Alexius added on his own. The traces of the magic still cling to the stone, but I can't make even a guess as to what material it was made of. It was obviously treated with lyrium though, considering the veins here." He shook his head with a deep sigh, "Possibly emerald, or some kind of treated greenstone, or even some other rock that merely turned green due to the exposure to fade magic."

"So you have no idea how to fix it?" She questioned archly and he straightened, the effect lost as his shoulders shook from the cold.

"I created this amulet with Alexius years ago. Yes, it has been added to, both physically and magically, but I should be able to figure out what he changed by working backwards from this one." He made a distasteful expression, "What I _need_ however, is time. Time and a decent library to study from."

"If you have any recommendations, now would be the time to mention them." Sayul retorted bluntly.

They didn't even know who was alive. True, Leliana would have attempted to send scouts back with news of the capture, but with the lack of information there was no telling what, if any, news escaped and if Haven was warned at all. If they had been warned then perhaps some of them would have escaped, but the most prominent members- Cullen, Josephine, Cassandra, Vivienne and Verric would likely have been killed or captured. Sera would probably have escaped, she was wily like that.

A pang in her chest at the thought had her scowling. How the little elf had wormed her way into her heart so easily was a mystery, but she'd managed it nonetheless.

"Yes, recommendations. I haven't been in Farelden long enough for that. If you were asking for somewhere in Tevinter, perhaps I could help, but getting there in this state is debatably possible." Dorian responded and she blinked, tearing her thoughts away from the quirky blonde.

Sayul rubbed her forehead again. She wanted someone to tell her what to do. She wanted to be able to sit back and leave the responsibility to someone else. The problem was, Dorian wasn't taking charge, and she wasn't sure she'd trust him enough to follow if he did; and he was eager enough to follow her orders that it was clear he wasn't interested in leading either. So that left her.

She took a breath and took a moment to pat down her pockets and small pack. It had managed the trip though time same as her and it briefly brought the question of if she could bring things back in time with her when- if- she returned, but she really had no time to contemplate that so she put it to the back of her mind.

The first thing Shokrakar had drilled into Sayul's head was always, _always_ keep a map with you. A map, a weapon, flint, and a waterskin. All else could be replaced or salvaged or hunted for. Bato had forgotten his map on a recon trip once- the crazy dwarf had insisted his sense of direction was impeccable- and had ended up two towns over and reported on a wife who was cheating on her husband with an elven serving girl rather than the lord's wife he was looking for. It was rather comical for the group, but she was certain the lord's wife was less pleased to be accused of adultery.

She pulled her leather map case from her pack, trying not to think too hard on the Valo-Klas and their fates. Judging by the path of their flight she could see that they had gone southeast some way, past what was commonly called the Hinterlands and likely deep into the Kokari Wilds. They had passed a sizable lake earlier so she estimated their position to be just slightly too far south of the ruins of Ostagar for it to be worth returning north.

There was a pip on the map she'd never understood however. It was south of Ostagar just enough that they could reach it without losing as much time as investigating Ostagar would take. It was in Shokrakar's handwriting, a dark dot with 'Last Sighting' written boldly beneath it. The woman had given her the map with the marking already present, and though she'd questioned her about it she'd never explained it. She said the place was cursed. At this point, the whole world was cursed though, so maybe a little magic would help.

"Right." She said firmly, startling Dorian who was grumbling to himself and adding kindling to the sputtering fire. He looked up, eyes intense.

"Figured it out then, have you?" She nodded.

"Yes, I have our path. We can't make it there tonight though unless you're up for another twenty four hours of running." The mage grimaced. He'd been the first to collapse when they ran from Redcliffe and Sayul had been the one to physically carry him until she herself could no longer run. It was embarrassing for him and terrifying for her and the both of them would prefer to forget the incident entirely. She took his grimace to mean what it did and nodded.

"Then we'll be camping here for the night." She decided. Dorian cast a disdainful look around the shabby overhang of stone above him and sighed heavily, tugging his robes closer about him.

"I don't suppose you have a bedroll of some kind in that pack of yours." He questioned morosely and she shook her head gently, he huffed, "Of course not, because Dorian and cold are _best_ friends." He snarled something unsavory into his robes as he practically crawled into the fire. Sayul sighed.

It was going to be a long night.

The next day was long; made more so by a grumpy Tevinter mage who couldn't seem to stop himself from complaining about anything he could find fault in. The weather was going to give him a cold, his robes were still wet, if the Elder One hadn't found their position now he wouldn't soon and they should rest, oh and his feet hurt from walking. Couldn't they stop? She was about ready to bite his ear and see if he deflated like those mabari pups she'd seen trained before.

Then again, that might just give him the wrong impression. Wrong impressions were _not_ what would keep things natural between them, and if they were walking on eggshells it was more likely for them to be ambushed. So, in the interest of survival, that meant no trying to put the irritating human in his place.

They found the pip on the map at around dark. It was a gently sloped hill surrounded by swamp. In a small dip that was well hidden by surrounding trees and shrubbery sat a hut, fit for no more than three comfortably. So then… what did 'Last Sighting' mean then?

She slipped easily into stealth after shooting Dorian a significant 'stay the fuck where you are or so help me' glance. He looked offended, so she thought he got the gist of it. As she approached the small building she heard something that sounded like singing from inside.

She made her way to the open window cautiously and peered in. Inside, a woman with long blonde hair was sitting on a bed next to a curled up child with dark hair singing gently and stroking his hair. She stopped abruptly and Sayul froze, afraid to draw attention to herself.

"Who's there?" The woman asked, tone cold, though quiet enough that it didn't disturb the form at her side. Sayul didn't answer and the woman stood, facing the window with a deep frown. Sayul might have made a run for it then, but the woman's eyes, fixed though they were on the window, were boldly white-blue.

"I'm blind not an idiot." She growled when Sayul did not respond.

"Oh for Meferath's sake, she's not going to eat us and there's a _fire_ inside." Dorian said loudly from somewhere behind her and she couldn't help the small sigh that escaped her.

"Yes, thank you Dorian." She turned back to the woman, who was still standing defensively between the child and Sayul. "Forgive my manners, my name is Sayul. My companion and I were merely looking for a place to stay for the night."

Dorian approached from down the hill, obviously thinking her death threat wasn't applicable anymore so he was free to move. She shot him a disgruntled look, but kept the woman in her peripheral vision.

Who was this woman? She was wearing clean clothes, nothing expensive but not peasant wear either. Her hair was washed and clean- something Sayul envied greatly- and she held herself with confidence that belied her lack of sight. Somehow, she got the feeling she was important- in an 'I'm not recognizing king Alistair' way.

"You're Tevinter aren't you?" Sayul was brought out of her thoughts by the question.

"Will that be a problem?" Dorian asked lightly.

"You're also a mage. Not a blood mage by the feel of it, but I could be mistaken." Dorian blinked. The woman was _blind_ , how she knew he was a mage was disconcerting.

"No, no blood magic for me." He said, brushing off his uneasiness with a breezy tone. The woman blinked suddenly, shaking her head as though to reorient herself.

"Forgive me, please, come in. My name is Rhoslyn." She efficiently made her way to the door and opened it for them to enter. She stilled noticeably as Sayul brushed past her, but made no comment, shutting the door after Dorian.

"Mum?" A sleepy voice asked and Rhoslyn smiled.

"I'm sorry we woke you Niall. We'll be having guests for tonight." She boy who sat up in the lone bed was no more than eight, with wavy black hair and dark eyes. If it wasn't for the shape of his face Sayul wouldn't have thought them related at all.

He eyed the two of them suspiciously, his eyes widening as they lay on Sayul's horns. Of course, if he'd never seen a Quinari before she probably looked like something out of a nightmare- or just a demon considering the current state of the world. She braced herself for the fear, the questions-

"You're the woman from my dream!"

And the world tilted on it's axis for a moment. "I'm sorry?" She managed, but the boy was tugging on his mother's sleeve.

"Remember? The one with the lady with horns that promised to bring daddy back?" Rhoslyn let out a small uneasy laugh.

"Yes, dear. Now try to get some sleep. You hardly slept at all last night." The boy protested, obviously wanting to stay up and talk with the two visitors. Sayul wasn't really listening though. His dream? The boy was probably a mage then, unless the breach being open and massive made non-mages susceptible to the fade. She put the thought out of her mind without much fuss, it was interesting, but hardly the most pressing issue in her mind.

Rhoslyn was stroking the hair away from Niall's forehead again when she returned her attention to the room, his breathing already evened out though he'd been complaining so heavily beforehand. She motioned towards the door. "Come. Let us speak outside."


End file.
